Maya Lin: New York | "Exclusive" | Art21

Episode #179: Speaking from her Manhattan studio in late 2012 and early 2013, artist Maya Lin discusses her new body of work, which is shown at The Pace Gallery in New York City. Lin began this series of sculptures by examining New York's ecological past—going back to the time when streams and marshes covered Manhattan through to Hurricane Sandy when rising sea levels wreaked havoc on the city. As a lifelong environmental activist, Lin has continually created artworks that encourage viewers to rethink their immediate surroundings.

Maya Lin catapulted into the public eye when she submitted the winning design in the national competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. Trained as an artist and architect, her sculptures, parks, monuments, and architectural projects are linked by a desire to make a place for individuals within the landscape.

CREDITS: Producer: Ian Forster. Interview: Ian Forster. Camera: Ian Forster, Rafael Salazar Moreno & Ava Wiland. Sound: Amanda Long & Ava Wiland. Editor: Morgan Riles. Additional Media Courtesy: ABC News, Google Maps, Metropolitan Transit Authority & WNYC. Artwork Courtesy: Maya Lin & The Pace Gallery. Special Thanks: James Ewart.

[Maya Lin: New York]

[MAN] It's all about being random, so you can't create any patterns,

and you always have to switch up the distance--

you make a couple closer to each other and a couple further away...

[JAMES EWERT, STUDIO ASSISTANT]

But for this area, where it's the end of the river and it's really thin,

it's usually just one pin, so it just varies in one dimension,

but it can't look like there's a pattern at all.

[LIN] Generally when people experience something that is, say, a thousand miles long,

though you see a map and plan, your experience of a certain waterway is what you know.

It's really hard to understand an ocean.

It's really hard to understand a river.

Because, again, they tend to span borders--

they tend to span so many different zones.

So it will begin to think of those as, for lack of a better word,

just a very precious object...

Begins to get you to think of that river system as something that is much more controlled or finite

or something that is a singular organism.

The show in New York will focus primarily in on New York.

I'm trying to get to understand a place, like New York City,

What's literally below our feet.

What used to be there historically, topographically,

as well as what's there right now.

So, one of the two things that are anchoring the shows are these very large stone circles.

And this also will be in the show as a cast recycled silver piece.

And this is Manhattan.

This piece is going to be a pin river of the streams that used to be traversing midtown Manhattan,

west to east.

I wanted to create another waterway system,

so this is, sort of, literally the flood zone of Hurricane Sandy.

And so we're going to turn that into a fairly large pin river.

I don't know if it's important to anyone else other than me--

I'm fascinated by it. And I think throughout my work,

I've tried to reveal aspects of the natural world that you may not be thinking about.

After Hurricane Sandy, we're becoming to be very aware of our water's edge,

which is something Manhattan hasn't really focused on.

I think the discussions right now are: well, if we had not destroyed all the oyster beds--

the oyster beds were actually there to mitigate a lot of the storm surge.

Or, if the salt marshes were to combat...they're there as our first line of defense.

Do we remember that this is what Manhattan used to be,

and if we remember it, could we restore it back to a fraction of what it's abundance used to be.

We don't want to break down basic ecosystem services,

which are cleaning our air, cleaning our water...

And it's a moral issue.

One species absolutely doesn't have a right to overrun the planet.

You know, I'm curious if I'm having an impact.

As an artist, I don't want to be preachy.

So I think the sculptures themselves, they've given facts.

I'm someone who basically loves to mine the facts and stand back.

If we forget what used to be, then we've lost an ability toreally be sensitive to our surroundings.